LOCApON-... ______ __________________ ______ ___________ _________ ___________ -, ppma7e-r 7/h 10-300 UNITE[ STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STAT;: 1969 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Rhode_Island COUNTY * NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Providence INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY [f$ATIONAL HISTORIC ENTRY NUMB EH DATE TyJ*421tcM1K - complete applicable sections ft:NAMETTTTTTT7I1 .:.:.::T:..:; -.?.* COMMON: First Baptist Meeting House AND/OR HISTORIC: First Baptist Meeting House ..: .... .: .. ,. .:: . STREET AND NUMBER: 75 North Main Street CITY OR TOWN: Providence 1st Congressional District STATE CODE COUNTY: CODE Rhode Island 44 Providence 007 LA S SIF ICAT ION CATEGORY ACCESSIBLE OWNERSHIP STATUS Check One TO THE PUBLIc El District Building El Public Public Acquisition: tJ Occupied Yes: Restricted El Site El Structure Private El In Process o Unoccupied Unrestricted El Object Both El Being Considerod El Preservation work in progress No PRESENT USE Check One or More as Appropriate El Agricultural FJ Government El Pork El Transportation El Comments El Commercial El Industrial El Private Residence El Other Specify El Educational El Military Religious El Entertainment El Museum El Scientific WNER OF PROPERTY OWNERS NAME: Baptist Church *, STREET AND NUMBER: 75 North Main Street CITY OR TOWN: 5T4rE: Providence LOCATRThOF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS. ETC: Providence City Hall STREET AND NUMBER: Dorrance and Washington Streets CITY OR TOWN: St ATE Providence Rhode Island ENTArloiwExitiIc SURyEyS-.H.- -. TITLE OF SURVEY: zF Historic American -t S m -C 04 TE 0 F 5uRVEY:19UD7T377i era I tote County Lao 0 .2,2__Fed C El *2 DEPOSITORY FOR SUNVEY RECORDS: C Division to -D of Prints and Photographs In I C STREET AND NUMBER: C Library 0 of Congress/Annex z CITY OR TOWN: - STATE: C -C Washington D.C: Form IO-300o UNITEL STArES DEPAR’FMEMr OF THE 5’VERRR July 1969 NATIONAL FARI SERVICE - . , . .,. - _ rut it:’ , NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTO!flC PLACES -"‘ V IHVENTORY POMINATIO I2RM IINATIONAL HISTORIC rt77JE -- LANDM1udS . Continuation Sheet Number all entries 7. Description second page These pilasters are carried around the east wall ebere they frame the pulpit and sounding board by supporting a keystone. eLliptical. arch molding. This monumental central feature :Ls flaIcr:d by large double doors ith eared frames topped by broken pedinients. Between the pulpit and the sounding board is a Pal,1.aciian window. - Several other structural changes occured thzoughout the nineteenth cenkury. In 1832 the high pulpit and original square cws were removed and the woodwork was painted white. In 1834 thc: organ, given by Nicholas Brown II, was installed. This was enlarged. end rebuilt In 1884 and 1929, but the original case and many of the original pipes have an::- vived. Also in 1884 an ‘addition was made to r.he east end of the building. Here a new haptistry was installed and a stained glass window inserted in the east wall of the adcUtion. Tite Waterford glass chandelier is original, given by Hope Brown in 1792. In 1957, through the interest of John D. Rockfcllj"r Jr. , the entire building was renovated and strengthened, the white paint on the interior woodwork was changed to the original sage green, and the high pulpit and sounding board were restored along the lines of tile first design. The baptistry added in 1884 was closed off from the main auditorium by means of a reconstructed Pa].ladian window, rebuilt in the position of the original. BOUNDARY . - The First Baptist Meeting House property occupies a full blocic bounded on the north by the south curb of Thomas Street, on the east by the west curb of Benefit Street, on the south by the north curb of Waterman Street and on the we,st hr the east curb of North Main Street, an area of apn.oiii:ately 1.1 acres, - Gt’O 921.7t4 ____________________ ____ ____ N’ TIJiiiT±iii Chraic trio - Excellent Li Good fl Fair Dolerioruted Li thu.,, -. Li LIneApnood CONDITION Altered [ LlnuHmed , cI1"__J.±±± Site DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL itkr.ow,, PNVSICAL APPEAIIANCII . ‘ The First Baptist Meeting House was originally eighty feet square, with doors on all four sides, the main entrance being at the west end under the tower. The main body of the church is a two story frame structure with a low pitched roof and gable ends. Wooden quoins visually support the corners adding a vertical etphacis to the horizontal clapboarding and wooden beitcourse at the second story. Two rows of round-headed keystoned windows surround the entire building over a high basement with rectangular windows. The graceful spire rises from a projecting pedimanted two-story porch or tower with wooden quoins and a modillioned cornice on the gable, like those of the main structure. In the center of the upper story of ihe pavilion is a Palladian window. The entrance itself is framed 5y a freestanding pedimented Doric portico. Although the beautifully proportioned and ornamented spire is the major focal point of the building, it lacks ii, unity with the rest of the building in both scale and quality. I.,, This..lack of coherence reveals Brown’s amateur methods of design. Instead of planning the building as a whole, he gathered parts from various plates in Gibbs’ book and adjusted them to acoimtodate the building. The tower was taken almost line for line from one of the rejected designs for St. Martin’s which Gibbs illustrated in his book. A Boston master carpenter, James Summer, was brought to Providence to execute the design in wood, eliminating only the non-architectural ornament. Originally painted to imitate grained stone, it would have had an even stronger resemblance to the prototype. Gibbs’ steeple however, was designed to mount a full Corinthian portio; Brown used instead a small one story portico from another plate, Gibbs’ design for Marybone Chapel. The first stage of the spire is square, with quoined corners, relating it to the porch on which it rests, Abc-u I:bis an almost temple like pavilion sits, pedimented all four si des, u,Lth arched openings below, framed by Ionic pilasters. The caird and forth stages are octagonal, diminishing in size5 with arched windows and Corinthian pilasters. Ornamental vases or urns at the angles of each stage, decrease proportionately in size, maintaining the upward movement of forms. On the interior, the Square auditorium is divided into nave and side aisles by a row of four fluted Doric columns on each side which carry an elliptical ceiling -and ‘groini.vaulted gallery. A balcony cuts through the columns on both sides. This arrangement is a somewhat simplified version of Gibbs’ design for Marybone Cahp’e-l, also illustrated in his book. The broad shallow plaster vault over the nave and the groin vaulted side bays are unornamented and’ create a lorry oapa:nw,’e space, accented by their light, graceful springing from the slender Doric columns. Fluted doric pilasters along the wall correspond to the H columns and provide support for the vaults of the side bays. ____ __________________________________________________-_________ -. jlGNl FtANCE.::-.-.:iY PERIOD Chock One ot Ajorr on 4ppropriolo P.e.Columbion 16th Cenlury * El El 13th Century - El 20th Century El 15th Century El 17,h Cenlury El 19,1. Cent nry * ‘SPEC I Ft C DAT EIS, If Applical’te and ICnoicrn_.J7iLt,7 AR EAS OF SIGNIFICANCE Check One Or More nt Apprupriatdj - - Aboriginal - Education ["i Political IJ UrL’rm Ptorinnirng rj Prehistoric El Engineering flJ Religon/Phi. El Other hc.-c-;:v Historic El El Industry losophy Agriculture El El Invontion El Sci OtICO Architecture I - El Londscopo El Sculpture ‘ Art El Architecture -, ‘ El Socio I/Human. Commerce 0 ‘ El Literature , brian Communications - El Military El Titeote, - - - Conservation 0 Music ‘ El ‘‘ El Tioniporranon -- STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE ‘ ‘‘ ‘‘ - The First Baptist Meeting House, erected in Providence Rhode Island’ in 1774-75, is an important example of late Georgian church design in the American colonies. Joseph Brown, a wealthy merchant and pro- - fessor at Brown University, was in part responsible for the design, o based upon an unexecuted variant for St. Martins-in-the-Fields by - James Gibbs. The building reflects its New England heritage in its frame and clapboard construction and in its originally square, meeting house plan. Although perhaps not as elegant as Christ Church in Philadelphia 1727-57, with its wealth of Baroque detail executed in brick, or as refined as Kings Chapel in Boston 1761 with its well proportioned portico and fine granite masonry, The First Baptist Meeting House with its well proportioned, elaborate spire retains a U, strength and dignity which makes it one of the most beautiful eighteenth century churches in America. 1HISTORY Iii Lu In 1638 Roger Williams founded the first Baptist Church in America. For sixty years, services were held in houses of members untilthe sixth pastor, Pardon Tillinghast, built the first church. In’ 1774 when it was decided that a new church was needed, a site was chosen and Joseph Brown, amateur architect, and Jonathan Hammond, master carpenter, were sent to Boston to view churches and meetinghouses there. A coimnittee was formed called The Charitable Baptist Society and was granted a Charter of Incorporation giving it the power to receive and hold property. The meeting house was completed in 1775 as an 80 foot square building seating about twelve hundred persons. The design, selected by Joseph Brown, was based upon several plates - from James Gibbs’ Book of Architecture, 1728, which was owned by Brown. The plan was adapted to confirm to the square, non axial building of the traditional meeting-house to disassociate it from Anglican worship. Originally an aisle ran through the middle at right angles to the side aisles with doors opening on all sides.- In 1832 the box pews were removed and the present longitudinal ones installed which changed the original orientation of the church.